World Round Up Recap 2013

Jun 5,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

The anticipation was super huge for the majority of the participants that came to this years World Round Up Freestyle Championships. If they were there the first year then they were definitely trying to come back, and if they missed it, but knew all about it afterwards, then they were trying even harder to get there…

In the world of Freestyle there are only a few hundred people who are fully dedicated in the entire world and 40 of them showed up to The Cloverdale Rodeo to put on a demo for a crowd that really knows nothing about skateboarding. And that’s what made this event so special is that it really was more of a demo than a competition. Yes, people came to win, but mostly they were just stoked to be there, and even more stoked when the bleachers would fill up with an audience. The weather was nice all weekend which means more customers at the Rodeo, which in the end means more chance of people checking out the scene inside the Curling Rink where the best Freestyle Skateboarders in the World were showing their skills.

Hippie Mike and www.protestskateboards.com decided to cover the entire event and film lots of the skating and do interviews with as many of the competitors as possible. The skating was crazy and every single person had a different style and performed different tricks. When you have technical wizards determined to land everything they try, it’s easy to get too much footage.

Here’s our Video Recap of the entire Event filled with lots of 1 on 1 filming with all the riders during the warm up times

Starring: Kevin Harris, Russ Howell, Monty Little, Guenter Mokulys, Per Canguru, Ryan Brynelson, Andy Anderson, Mic Murayama, Takashi Suzuki, Kaue Araujo, Lucio Flavio Simas de Lima, Lynn Cooper, Masahiro Fujii, Toshiaki Fujii, Stefan Albert, Stefan “Lillis” Akesson, Felix “Fleppo” Jonsson, Darryl Grogan, Seya Nakano, Kilian Martin, Yuta Miyatake, Bert Mathieson, Daniel Trujillo, Jacob Whitt, Jesse Whalen, Sam McKinlay, Ricky Rodriguez, Tai Tai, Dan Garb, Adam Flood, Christian Heise, Tomo Koyano, Rene Shigueto, Thomas Nascimento, Alejandro Finy, Albert Kuncz and Mike Osterman

So many Flat Spotters

Jun 1,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Hippie Mike and some of the crew rolled into the Flatspot Longboard Shop the other night for the Bowl Contest they were hosting. This bowl is tiny and tight, with home-made pool coping throughout it, a very skinny and mean extension, narrow decks and and weird capsule style wallride corner. It was a very unique bowl and would’ve been a great one to have had a few practice sessions before the contest when it wasn’t so packed, but we all made it work.

Brad “Fighter” Muscat, Eve Feaver, Jeff Cole, Andy Anderson and Hippie Mike represented Protest Skateboards in the bowl while Jordan Strong repped outside with Ryan Barron displaying their ability to shotgun way too many beers. Allen Handley, Dylan Dombroski and Dennis Reagan also came with the crew.

So many people were ripping the bowl and anyone who woke up the next day without sore toes and shins was definitely not standing on the deck. The deck is not deep enough for anyone to stand while people are skating and there were times when 15-20 guys were in the bowl and shit was going down. Fighter was dropping his signature Judo Blunts on the 20” wide extension every try, Eve Nosepicked it and stomped a couple inverts on it too. Justin Readings showed his skills and experience there with the most flow of anyone, and Dave Helmer almost lost some teeth a couple times, but was definitely killin’ it. A lot of good talent all packed into a tiny area and there was like 75-100 more people just hanging out watching and drinking. The place was packed.

The contest didn’t even start until after 10:30pm when the infamous BanjoMan was done playing. Thanks to Mischa Chandler and Justin Readings for setting it up and Andy Anderson for taking on the main judging role. There was about 12 people that entered putting $120 up for grabs along with some product. Everyone had a bunch of runs to prove themselves and try and make the finals. The top 5 made the finals and the Protest/Surrey crew was dominating it – Hippie Mike, Jeff Cole, Allen Handley and Dylan Dombroski all made it in there along with another Dreadlock Shredder Kyle Wein. He threw down in the finals though and really killed it as time was running out by gapping over the doorway channel and sticking a sick lipslide around the whole corner. It was sick and he ended in 2^nd Place. Dylan Dombroski was dominating the bowl the whole night with fearless ambition hitting tricks on top of the wallride and airing off the extension to the lower trannys and just always staying on his board no matter how squirrely he would get. Dylan won hands down. Jeff Cole was killing it with old school and new school tricks and sticking everything he tried all night and continued to reign in the finals, Allen Handley skated the same and there were so many tricks going down from both of these guys it was crazy, and lots of tricks that no one there was used to seeing. But somehow, Hippie Mike pulled through and beat them both taking 3^rd Place. Then he shut down the session with a fastplant off the wall back into the corner of the bowl.

Blunts, Switch tricks, Wallbangs and Fastplants, Inverts, Nosepicks, Beer, and lots of hard crashes. For a 2 foot high bowl, this contest was pretty crazy…

Watch for video footage coming soon.

Congratulations again to Dylan Dombroski for winning $100 and some fancy product!

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Does your City still need a Skate Park?

Jun 1,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Oh how the times have changed….

When I was growing up we didn’t have skate parks where I lived, except for the occasional Indoor and maybe an outdoor wood park scattered around here and there. But all of those cost money to skate so really if you lived in Canada and weren’t around the Vancouver area, you were screwed.

Now a days almost every province has multiple skate parks in multiple cities, and some cities are even overloaded with skate parks, and they’re all free, outdoor, public facilities. But unfortunately, there are still plenty of cities and municipalities that have not jumped on to this boat yet, and it’s a shame for the skaters of their areas.

Where I live now we are spoiled in the sense that we don’t even have to fundraise anymore, most cities around here just tell us they are building another skate park. It took a long time to make it to this point, but if you’re not living here then you need to push on them to make it happen for you.

This is a great article from quite a few years ago in Transworld Magazine written by Miki Vuckovich from the Tony Hawk Foundation. Miki is a great person who cares a lot about skateboarding and helping it grow, and does a lot of promotional work behind the scenes to make thing happen. Read this article and learn step by step what you need to do to get started on the process of getting a skate park in your city, and then get to work…

http://skateboarding.transworld.net/1000008892/features/how-to-get-your-city-to-build-a-skatepark/

Happy Birthday Cisco!

May 28,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

It was around the end of 1999 when this shrimpy little skinny 14 year old kid started trying to talk to me all the time at Confederation Skate Park in Burnaby. Maya Credico introduced us because she always hung out with me and Carrie and knew the kid from school and the park. She told me his name was Cisco, and I was like, “Hey, what’s up Siskel?” He tried to correct me but it was said on purpose so that wasn’t happening. Cisco was one of those kids that just went for it all the time and tried to learn whatever tricks he was seeing in the videos. I remember him bouncing switch kickflips and frontside flips over the elbow hip at the park and it would baffle me how he would commit to them, but I still wasn’t all that nice to the little guy. Then one day, Gene Siskel died and when I was at the park I looked over at Cisco and said, “Well, I guess I can’t call you Siskel anymore…” and he said, “I guess not…” and somehow, that started this awesome friendship that we still have today.

Cisco Gooding grew up mentoring me and Jeff Cole, Jon Irvine, Steve Burden and a few others that were in our clique. But the whole time he would be learning from us, he was teaching us too. Cisco was always good at skateboarding and as he grew, to become 6′ 4” out of nowhere one day, his style arrived and his tricks got even better. We skated together every day for the rest of the years I lived in North Burnaby, and the large gap in age meant nothing to either of us. When Carrie and I moved to Surrey, Cisco would continue to come skate with us almost every night at Bear Creek Park and would stay over most weekends. He was a great kid.

Cisco has definitely grown into a man of his own opinions since those days and we are still very close friends and Cisco will always be one of my favourite people to skateboard with, or to just hang out with. I am proud of how far he has taken his career in studying Physics, being a T/A, earning his PHD, and living for free on paid scholarships to many Universities such as Langara, Simon Fraser and UBC. I know that I had a big influence on Cisco as he grew through his teenage years, and he has also influenced me and the others of our group of friends to be who we are today.

Happy 28^th Birthday to Cisco Gooding, we all love you budd!

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Flatspot? Not with these Mini Rats

May 28,2013 / By Hippie Mike / 2 Comments

Longboard Shops and Banjos? Yeah that could go together…
I don’t really know what to expect about this event but it’s coming up quickly and we’re going. It’s a Bowl Contest at Flatspot Longboard Shop on E. Pender in Vancouver and there’s money to be won.
This Friday, May 31st the doors open at 7:30pm, but you gotta be 19 or over to get in. $4 to enter the shop and $10 to enter the contest but winners will take the money back. The whole night is a mystery, we have no idea who BanjoMan is, and I’m not even sure if you have to skate a longboard in this thing, but it doesn’t matter, it’s a contest and the bowl looks fun! I know Andy Anderson has ridden it and said he had a blast. I also know he’s not old enough to enter so that means someone else could win.

Guest judges, no kids allowed, banjos – Sounds like a good time to me. Grab your skate, bring some cash and come find out what it’s all about

May 31st – 7:30pm
Flatspot Longboard Shop
112 E. Pender

Sponsored by Centre Distribution, Triple Eight, Rayne, Skate Slate, Vicious Griptape, Brooklyn Workshop and Gullwing Trucks
Be There…

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Kitsch is The Schit!

May 24,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

If you live in the Vancouver Area and you know anyone from the skateboard scene down there then you would probably recognize the name Geoff Dermer. Dermer’s been around for a long time and is one of the most stylish skateboarders around. He has influenced many over the years to become really technical ledge and flatground skaters and still represents with talent everywhere he goes. Catch up with him at The Plaza whenever you can.

Geoff Dermer created his own skateboard brand quite a few years back called Kitsch Skateboards and he has a solid team of riders – Cory Wilson, Stacy Gabriel, Will Blakley, Mike Hastie, Sean Macalister and himself Geoff Dermer. They came out with a full length video a couple years ago called “Bric-a-Brac” and are still filming all the time. You can find most of their riders in the magazines, and their product is built tough.

Kitsch skateboards is a company you can trust and should support. Check out their new product line for 2013

http://kitschskateboards.com/?p=3807

and watch the latest Kitsch commercial featuring Cory Wilson

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Do You Like to GIVER?

May 22,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

GIVER Wheels is a new company created by Maple Ridge Local Jesse Holland. With a team consisting of himself, Jonathan Reichert, Mike Rogers and the man they actually call “Giver” – Michael James they like to represent the new product at random skate parks. Here is a montage of the team having fun together and Given’R at Lake Errock.

Check out the video, and hit the links to learn more about how you can get down with GIVER Wheels.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Giver-Skate-Co/171911252972771

Instagram – @GiverSkate

World Round Up 2013 Winners

May 21,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Once again, Wow! What a weekend of insanity. Being a skateboarder for over a quarter century I have seen a lot of amazing talent and have been to and organized many skateboard events, small and big, but this one was at the top of the list for awesomeness. Not since Slam City Jam have I seen so many unbelievable skaters in one room in the Lower Mainland. These guys know how to put on a show….

Big thanks to Monty Little and Kevin Harris for putting in the hours of labour to set this Freestyle Championship up, and also to house contestants from all over the world. I had the pleasure of being the main Videographer for this event and I will be releasing a short video/interview for each contestant as well as a 15 minute Recap Video of the entire event. I got to meet everyone that was there on a more personal level and really enjoyed my time with each of them. And to top it off I was honoured by Monty and Kevin with a Kevin Harris/Skull Skates Deck signed by everyone and a Bob Marley Freedom Flag – so stoked!! Be ready for all the videos to come out throughout the next week.

As for the results, it was tough in both Categories. The Amateurs had some serious battles going on and people jumped positions between the Semi-Finals and Finals. I am Proud to announce that 2 of our Protest Riders made Top 3 and you know who they are – Andy Anderson took 3^rd Place, which is huge considering that he just really got into Freestyle on a serious note one year ago at last year’s World Round Up. Then it came down to Ryan Brynelson and Kaue Arouja for 1^st and 2^nd. They both had flawless, consistent and insane runs in the Finals and somehow Ryan Brynelson accomplished his goal and is now the #1 Ranked Amateur Freestyle Skateboarder in the World. Give it up for the Protest Kids!!!

In the Pro’s it was tight and I mean tiiiiiiiiight. So tight that the Top 5 were all scored within 1 point of each other. One of the competitors was really pushing for me to hook him up with sponsorship and he is definitely deserving so we have added him onto the Protest Team. Lucio Flavio Simas de Lima from Brazil is now sponsored by Protest Skateboards and finished in 7^th Place in the Pro Division. He is stoked!!

I gotta give it up to all the Pros, this was a difficult competition and even though they all love each other like family, everyone was there with the same goal to win. Per Canguru from Brazil went into the Finals in 2^nd Place but had some difficulty in his runs and ended up in 5^th. Masahiro Fujii from Japan destroyed the place and had the crowd going crazy all day every day and ended up in 4^th Place. Mike Osterman from USA is one of the most solid skateboarders I’ve ever seen, he stomps every trick with more power than he uses to pop them and he pulled through for a 3^rd Place finish. The biggest surprise of the contest was Seya Nakano from Japan who is not a sponsored Pro but entered into the Pro Category in hopes of success that would help make that sponsorship happen, and I think his chances of it happen are very high now since he put on an amazing Demo of how good he is and ended up in 2^nd Place. So good!!

The winner was almost inevitable right from Day 1 – Guenter Mokulys from Berlin, Germany has been skating Freestyle for decades and when he’s on his game, he is almost untouchable. He dominated the entire weekend right from the get-go and proved himself once again to be the champ by winning 1^st Place at The World Round Up Freestyle Championship 2013. This was huge piece of history as this was Guenter’s 10^th big win and he is now a 10-Time Freestyle World Champion.

Give it up for Guenter Mokulys!!!

This event was soooooo awesome. I asked so many competitors in their interviews the same question “What will be your biggest memory from this event?” and the majority had the same answer – to see all their friends from around the world who they share a special and unique passion with, and the feeling that filled the atmosphere which was so positive. It felt like a huge Family Reunion and I can’t believe how so many people who speak completely different languages can all come together in unity and be as one in this little space. That is the beauty of acceptance.

Cheers to everyone who came out, and understand that the love shared throughout the arena was made possible by riding a piece of wood with some wheels bolted on to it.

Skateboard for Life….Skateboard for Love

– Hippie Mike

World Round Up 2013 Results

Amateur

Ryan Brynelson – Canada
Kaue Arouja – Brazil
Andy Anderson – Canada
Jacob Whitt – USA
Thomas Nascimento – Brazil
Felix “Fleppo” Jonsson – Sweden
Daniel Trujillo – USA
Mic Murayama – Japan
Alejandro C Finy – Costa Rica
Adam Flood – Canada

Professional

Guenter Mokulys – Germany
Seya Nakano – Japan
Mike Osterman – USA
Masahiro Fujii – Japan
Per Canguru – Brazil
Stefan “Lillis” Akesson –Sweden
Lucio Lima – Brazil
Rene Shigueto – Brazil
Jesse Whalen – USA
Albert Kuncz – Hungary/Slovakia

Other Competitors not in Top 10

Amateur

Rickey Rodriguez – USA AJ Kohn – USA
Sam McKinlay – Canada Bert Mathieson – USA
Yuta Miyatake – Japan Christian Heise – Germany

Professional

Dan Garb – USA
Darryl Grogan – USA
Lucas Gomes – Brazil
Lynn Cooper – USA
Stefan Albert – Germany
Tai Tai – Brazil
Takashi Suzuki – Japan
Tomo Koyano – Japan
Toshiaki Fujii – Japan
Photos from Day 4

World Round Up Finals – WOW!!

May 20,2013 / By Hippie Mike / 1 Comment

It all comes down to that 1 word – WOW!!

This event has been something else, every time your blink your eyes some other mind-blowing tricks gets stomped down. I have never seen so many handstands in my life, and all of these guys can flip out of them and land perfect every time, some can even double flips. The footage I have been capturing will change your outlook on skateboarding completely when you see it – Primos, Truck Stands, 1 foot spins and Cocunut Wheelies, there is no limit. One of the best tricks I filmed so far was a moving handstand with a bunny hop ollie still in handstand and then kickflip out by the Dr. Bert Mathieson, who is in his 50’s.

That was another crazy thing, out of the Pro’s that were in the Finals, 6 out of 10 of them are in there 40’s, that’s why they’re so hard to beat because of how experienced they are.

The Amateur Category was even more crazy than Saturday’s Semi-Finals with Ryan Brynelson, Kaue Arouja, Andy Anderson and Jacob Whitt all throwing down flawless and unreal runs. The technicality and consistency of these 4 made them all look like Pros and I would hate to have to judge between them.

The real Pros were just as tough of course with Guenter Mokulys ruling the floor again, Per Canguru, Rene Shigueto, Seya Nakano, Mike Osterman and others trying there hardest to beat him but it is so, so difficult. We won’t know any of the results until the Awards Ceremony at 3pm to close down the contest.

All I have to say is this entire weekend has been packed full of smiling faces, heart to heart conversations, amazing people and historic memories. Great skating from everyone who showed up and good luck to those trying to win prizes.

Photos from the Finals

Ones and Twos at The Round Up – Ten’s the Limit Day 2

May 19,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Well, the 2^nd day of The World Round Up was definitely insanity. This was the Semi-Finals and it was crazy – so many people were throwing down everything they possibly could imagine trying to try and make it in the Top 10 for their categories to be in the Finals on Sunday. Even Kevin Harris couldn’t get over how unbelievable the tricks going down were. But this is to be expected since we are looking 40 of the best Freestyle Skaters in the World. Japan, Brazil, Germany, USA, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Sweden, United Kingdom and Canada are all being represented in full effect. And one of the coolest things happened today, PD from Skull Skates was on site and awarded every competitor with a custom made Kevin Harris/Skull Skates Deck and they were all i awe. So awesome!!

The crowds were huge today, there was a 5 minute demo by Kevin Harris, Kilian Martin and AJ Kohn that may have been the best demo I ever saw, and the the competition was insane all day. The best part is both of Protest Skateboards Team Riders are in the Finals for Amateur in the top ranks – Ryan Brynelson in 1^st and Andy Anderson in 2^nd. This is amazing, and all we can do now is hope they both keep skating as good and as consistent as they have been already and keep these positions after the Finals. I think they can do it and I’m stoked to have them both representing for me.

The Pro category is gonna be the tough one for sure. I can pick out 6 guys I know will make the Top 10 but that leaves only 4 spots out of 17 more skaters. I would hate to be a judge, and these guys gotta recognize that even if they don’t make the finals, they still did amazing jobs and wowed some massive crowds today.

Sunday May 19^th is the day you need to be at this event. Shit is going down for sure so come out to Cloverdale and support your locals Andy and Ryan, and be prepared to see the craziest skateboarding you have ever seen. $10,000 in prize money leaving the building tomorrow.

Amateur Finals @ 11am-12:30pm

Professional Finals @ 4pm-6pm

Here are some photos from today